‘Ali’ and ‘Bronagh’ will be the first two storms this season (if we get them)

Met Éireann and the UK Met Office have revealed the list of storm names for the coming season with ‘Ali’ and then ‘Bronagh’ being the first two, should they arrive in these isles.

First introduced in 2015, this is the fourth year that Met Éireann and the UK Met Office have jointly run the ‘Name our Storms’ scheme, aimed at raising awareness of severe weather before it hits.

This year the first storm will be ‘male’ and named Ali, while the second storm will be ‘female’ and named Bronagh, following the alternating male/female pattern established by the US National Hurricane Center in the 1970s.

Why do we name storms?

Derrick Ryall, Head of Public Weather Services at the Met Office, said the naming of storms has been ‘proved to raise awareness of severe weather’ in the UK and Ireland, ‘providing a consistent message’ to the public and ‘crucially prompting people to take action’ to prevent harm to themselves or to their property.

When do we name storms?

According to Met Éireann, a storm will be named for weather systems which we expect an Orange (Amber) or Red wind warning which will be issued by Met Éireann and/or the Met Office.

The agency added that this season’s names have once again been compiled from a list of suggestions submitted by the public, ‘choosing some of the most popular names but also selecting names that reflect the culture and diversity of Ireland and Britain’.

As in previous years, Q, U, X, Y and Z will not be used, to comply with the international storm naming conventions.

Evelyn Cusack, chair of the European group for storm-naming said that the names of the two most serious events affecting our shores over the last year, Ophelia and Emma, actually did not come from our 2017-18 list.

Ophelia is from the rotating list used by the National Hurricane Center in Miami and was the farthest-east major hurricane observed in the satellite era. Emma was named by the National Weather Service in Portugal (AEMET) and produced heavy snow as it clashed with the Arctic conditions over Ireland and Britain in early March this year.

Ophelia

On 16 October 2017 ex-hurricane Ophelia (named by the US National Hurricane Center) brought very strong winds to western parts of Britain and Ireland.

Ex-hurricane Ophelia was the second storm of the 2017-2018 winter season, following Storm Aileen on 12 to 13 September. The Met Office reported that the strongest winds were ‘around Irish Sea coasts with gusts of 60 to 70 Kt or higher in exposed coastal locations’.

The most severe impacts were across Ireland, where three people died from falling trees. Storm Ophelia brought heavy rain and very mild temperatures caused by a southerly airflow drawing air from the Iberian Peninsula.

Extreme weather

Evelyn Cusack, also Head of Forecasting at Met Éireann, said the last 12 months have seen some ‘extreme weather around the Globe as well as here at home’.

“While it is too early to say whether the coming winter will be a stormy one or a quiet one, we are prepared with a new set of 21 names for whatever nature may throw at us. Met Éireann is delighted to continue working with colleagues from the UK Met Office to warn of impending severe weather.”

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